1988 300TE Wont rev as high in 1st

[ps2cho]

Hi guys,

Recently my car will not rev up as high in 1st gear. Every now and again I give it a good bootfull of gas, but I noticed that it no longer rev's high in 1st gear.

It only goes into first when the button on the floor is pressed and it revs fast to about 3,500 rpm then shifts to 2nd and revs all the way up to 6,500 rpm before it shifts to 3rd....It never used to be like this, so I'm not sure what has made it do this now.

I just took the car to EZLube last week so all of the fluid levels are all good.

Any possible ideas?

Could it be related to my bad stem seals? (I will be doing this in a few weeks finally!) The thing is that it used to go all the way up to 6,500 rpm in 1st, but now only to ~3,500 before it shifts...and my stem seals have been like this before it stopped doing it.

Thanks, ps2cho